Method and apparatus for operating a drive unit of a vehicle

There are proposed a method and a device (25) for operating a drive unit (180) of a vehicle, leading to a reduced fuel consumption in the overrun mode. In this case, an output of the drive unit (180) according to a preset driving strategy is set in the overrun mode of the drive unit (180). For the pushing operation of the drive unit (180) at least two preset driving strategies are specified. In the push operation, one of the predefined driving strategies is selected depending on a driving situation.